The Internal Battle
by SylviaSnape98
Summary: How do you chose a Life when a life is all that you have? How to choose light or dark when both have given you so much? Why not let someone else choose for you? WARNING; Character death!


Harry knew that seeking refuge in an old shack wasn't his best idea in the world, but it was all that he could do.

They were onto him again. After years of running away from them, you would think that they would just leave him alone. That was all he ever really wanted! But no, now he was a prize to obtain; something that was sought after.

No one had won the war, not yet. And that was Harry's fault. He knew that, but he wasn't going to choose sides. He just couldn't choose sides at this point; both sides had done so much for him. The 'light' had given him an identity, someone to be. The 'dark' had given him a life, something to do every day. How could he choose between love and necessity; who was he to make that decision?

He was finally brought back from his musings by the doorknob rattling. Rats, he had wished they would just pass over this place. Who would be stupid enough to hide in a shack?!

Oh, right.

He pulled out his wand and pointed it at the door, fully expecting some form of his worst nightmare to blow through it. But, he didn't know what his worst nightmare was anymore. Dementors, perhaps? No, he had grown too much for that.

"_The kid has got to be in there." _said a muffled voice. It sounded like it would belong to a female deatheater, but in this world Harry didn't know anything; not anymore.

"_Are you sure about this one, mate?" _

"_Positive." _ Would they just hurry it up already? There is no point in just chattering. If Harry were trying he could've gotten away already!

"_Shit," _he mumbled, "That's what I was supposed to be doing!"

But, what was the best way to do it? Send a wave of magic at them that was powerful enough to knock them out; or just apparate silently like he had learned to do? Better yet, why didn't he turn into his animagus form? That would frighten them quite a bit!

The doorknob slowly turned, which reminded Harry that he couldn't just plan this one out. He had to actually do what he was good at this time, just fight and fly.

Harry tried to turn into his animagus, which was an Australian Sheppard, but his body and magic refused to work for him. He tried to send out a wave of magic to knock out his pursuers, but his magic wouldn't work; and he wouldn't dare apparate incase he splinched himself like Ron had.

_Ron_. The name sent a nostalgic pain through Harry. Why had Ron and Hermione left him? Why did his mum and dad leave him? Why had Sirius and Remus left him? Peter had even left him to a certain extent. Everyone left him in the end… Why was that?

He sat there in silence as his mind finally figured out what his body and his magic had. He was tired of running. Why should he run? He had no one else to live for. If it did happen to be the death eaters they wouldn't do anything, because they wanted Voldemort to kill him; once and for all. One Avada missing him was fine, but two? Harry couldn't be invincible; no one was.

Finally the door creaked open, and there stood two tall imposing people in long black cloaks and bone white masks. "_So, it was deatheaters,_" said Harry's amused mind.

"We've found you, Potter!" One of them shouted. Harry wished he knew who they were, they seemed interesting enough.

"So, it seems you do." Harry mused quietly.

They looked at each other and then back to Harry, as if expecting something from him. So, they wanted a glorious tale of how they had finally brought Harry Potter into the Dark Lords custody? They wanted battle scars?

They wouldn't be getting those today.

Finally, after at least a minute's worth of silence, Harry stood up, "Well, we best be on our way. Speaking of which, where are we going anyways?"

One of them grabbed his skinny left arm and growled, "Don't try to get yourself out of this, Potter! We've got you, fair and square!"

Harry raised an amused eyebrow at the person, it was obviously the girl that had spoken earlier; she was seemingly about the same age as Harry was, around 43 years old.

"Well then, take me to your leader." Harry said with a smirk, knowing a deatheater would never understand what he had just said, he would take it as a literal.

Finally the man got irritated enough to just apparate out of there, leaving a simply charmed note that Harry had dropped where they had once stood.

Voldemort was not in the best of moods as his two newest deatheaters walked into his throne room, toting a man with them. No doubt they thought this man was Harry Potter. They saw a man with Black hair and Green eyes and they automatically believed it was The-Boy-Who-Lived. These two were very troublesome, and if this was not the actual Harry Potter he was going to flip his lid and just kill them.

Their names were Dirk Creswell and Marietta Edgecombe. Dirk was a Mudblood, so he was expendable. He was here for the pure purpose of getting information. The girl was a pureblood, a Ravenclaw, in fact. You would think that she would be smarter… but no. The only reason that she was here was because she had told Umbridge about Harry Potter's Army of sorts while they were in school.

They dropped the man to the ground, and he just stayed there like a rag doll. Maybe they had only brought back the empty shell of a man this time? With these two it seemed very likely. There was just a shortage of good help now.

Lucius Malfoy and his family had run off after the battle where Harry Potter had feigned death, and I had so foolishly killed Snape. I should've seen that it was actually Draco who had control of the wand. Who it was now is still unknown to me, and that prospect bothers me greatly.

Dirk and Marietta drop to their knees in front of me and kissed the hem of my robes. I felt like making them squirm so I kept silent for a few minutes, "You may rise." I hissed in Parstletounge.

I saw the stranger stir as they stood. I saw a flash of a strange scar, and I knew that they hadn't messed up this time.

"You are dismissed." I said in an icy voice.

They fled from the room, knowing they would gain no praise or punishment from me today. Finally the feeble looking man stood up and looked at me square in the eyes. He wasn't frightened, or worried. There were no emotions in his unearthly eyes.

"Hello, Tom." He said quietly. His voice was still strong after all of these years… I still wanted to break that strong voice piece by piece.

"Why are you here, Potter?" My voice sounded tired to my ears, and I was shocked to see that Potter's face reflected my voice.

"You know why I'm here."

It's true. I did know why he was here, but I didn't want to let him know. The shock of seeing him again after almost 20 years was too much, "Why?" I whispered in a hoarse voice.

"Because I still need you, Tom; no matter how long we are apart, I'll always need you."

"_Lies!_" I hissed.

"Please, Tom, just liste-…"

"_Avada Kedavra!_" My voice rang out.

There was a loud bang as my wand shot out the curse, and all was silent afterwards except for the flop of Harry falling to the ground. I stood there with my chest heaving and my eyes turning a bright red. Why hadn't I done that before? Why had I never killed him before?

_Because you loved him. _

I broke down in that moment, my first and last moment of vulnerability. Harry Potter was dead, dead by my hand. _My _Harry was dead. Black tears trekked their ways down my cheeks. I had loved him… I had killed the man I loved. Why had he just let me kill him? Why couldn't he still be here with me?

Weeks past before I could finally convince those two dunderheads to show me where Harry had hidden. They walked me towards a rundown shack in the middle of nowhere and let me walk in there alone. By now there was news everywhere about Harry Potter's death. No one tried to resist me anymore; they just did as they were told. Without Harry their spirits were gone; and so was mine.

I saw a plain white paper on the ground, and I scanned it for enchantments. There was only a very weak notice-me-not charm on it. I slowly picked it up and read it, knowing that the information in it would be very important; it was obvious that it was created by Harry.

_To whoever should find this and care enough to read it, _

_This was the last place that the late Harry James Potter had run to in his desperation to get away from the darkness. This was also the last place that he had run to in his desperate attempt to get rid of the light._

_He had gone through to many losses and he had gained so little. There will never be a true resting place of Harry James Potter because one cannot sleep when you are in such a situation. All you can do, dear reader, is hope that he met his demise with a smile; for there is no greater pleasure to a dying man then the thought of embracing death as a true friend. _

_Harry has left three things to the world, and for those who should find them. One is a cloak that turns things invisible. But don't worry, you can find it if you set it down. The second, a ring that brings those back from the grave, but they will never be truly whole again. And last, is a wand, made of Elder wood, with a string of trestle hair in the middle of it. Whoever gains these three items shall be the master of death himself. _

_But only I shall be Death's true friend. For I have met him and been pushed back out of his grasp many a time. That's all that matters in the end._

_Harry James Potter, _

_Order of Merlin (Second class),_

_Master of Death,_

_Boy-Who-Lived,_

_Man-Who-Died _

I held in my pain as I pocketed the note. There would be time for grieving some other day, but not today. He could always do something about the note some other day. That is all that he could ever do.


End file.
